Greenleaf co-owner pleads guilty in plea agreement deal that will send him to prison for four years

Jan. 14, 2014

Written by

News-Leader Staff

A Nixa man who was a co-owner of Greenleaf Companies pleaded guilty in federal court Jan. 9 to aiding and abetting a bank fraud conspiracy that was part of a multi-million-dollar mortgage investment scheme.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Eric Gagnepain, 41, will be sentenced to four years in federal prison without parole, and must pay restitution in the amount ordered by the court, according to the release.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of an investigation by the United States Probation Office, according to the release. Gagnepain must also plead guilty to state charges. The sentence in the state case will be served concurrently with the federal sentence.

Gagnepain co-owned and operated Greenleaf Companies and all of its subsidiaries, along with Scot Dasal, 47, of Republic, from 2006 through May 2008, according to the release. During that time, Greenleaf sponsored real estate investment seminars that were designed to recruit potential investors to apply for mortgage loans for the construction and sale of residential homes in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.

By pleading guilty, Gagnepain admitted that he aided and abetted others in the creation and submission of fraudulent mortgage loan documents, according to the release. These mortgage loan documents contained material false statements regarding the true source of monies provided at the time of closing, as well as fraudulently omitting the payment of monies obtained from the sale of the real estate properties.

Dasal pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a bank fraud, according to the release. He was sentenced on Nov. 21 to three years in federal prison without parole, and ordered to pay $2,911,209 in restitution.

According to the plea agreement, Gagnepain derived more than $1 million in gross receipts from his criminal conduct. The total loss amount resulting from the bank fraud conspiracy is between $2.5 million and $7 million, according to the release.

The plea agreement cites a specific instance of such fraud that occurred on March 12, 2008, according to the release. Gagnepain and others created false mortgage loan documents that were submitted to Flagstar Bank. The loan documents fraudulently stated that the borrower had provided their own monies at the time of the closing; in reality, however, Greenleaf provided monies that were falsely identified as “cash from borrower.” Additionally, the loan documents omitted the fact that Greenleaf would receive monies from the sale of the real estate property from the seller. If Flagstar Bank had known the true source of the monies provided on behalf of the borrower, or that Greenleaf was receiving monies from the sale of this real estate property, the bank would have denied the mortgage loan application.